Digital technology has transformed motion pictures, television, news and sporting events and video games. Digital graphic systems can now incorporate live video feeds, film and digitally created video streams to create seamless images.
Methods that permit the real time replacement of the background portion of an incoming data stream are also known in the art. For example, a television viewer routinely sees a weather reporter standing in front of a map. However, the reporter is in fact standing in front of a blue or green screen, referred to as a chromascreen, with the reporter's image superimposed over a digital or film image of the map. These techniques are referred to as “Chromakey Technology” or “Digital Matting.”
Chromakey Technology may also be used to insert indicia such as an image of a product or a trademark into a pre-recorded scene. The insertion of such indicia requires the control of background and lighting to compensate for anomalies in the background luminescence and color. Computer technology is often used to facilitate the replacement of the blue screen with an alternative background. However, careful attention to details in the lighting and placement of the indicia is required to preserve the effect of the inserted indicia.
The above-described technologies have also been used to create simple music videos, in which the heads of participants replace the heads in a video of previously recorded professional dancers. It is known to use such videos for arcade attractions, special occasion videos, or trade show and convention promotional novelties. When making such videos, according to known techniques, the first step is to film the dancers performing to music with their heads fixed in place. This can be accomplished by simply constraining the movement of the dancers such as, for example, using a helmet attached to a support stanchion. The dancer video is recorded and stored in a video camera or Digital Video Disk (DVD). Second, the video is then edited to remove the video representations of the dancers' heads. As a third step, third party participants draped in green capes are recorded in front of a green screen so that only their heads are visible in locations corresponding to those of the dancers. Fourth, a copy of the dancer video is then recorded replacing the dancers' heads with those of the participants. This video may be recorded to be given to the participants as a novelty.
The method for making a music video as described above has several limitations. In order to make the video, the professional dancers are locked in a limited range of motion that can make them appear unnatural and the dancing constrained and unprofessional. A second problem is that the participants are also limited during the third step as to the range of movements they can undertake. If a participant strays too far from this range, a substituted head does not align with the designated dancer's body, and appears to “float” in the video.
Other problems occur due to the limitations of the Chromakey technology. For example, if a participant brings his or her hands out from under the drape, they will be recorded and “float” in the dance video. Further, the lighting used to record the dancers in the studio will not necessarily be the same as the lighting used when the participant is recorded. Lighting variations may prevent the seamless blending of the live images with the prerecorded dancers video. Finally, color variations in skin tones between the dancers and the participants cannot be corrected.
Using popular dance music for a superimposed video recording creates another problem. Unless the music is held under copyright by the system developer, royalties are owed to the copyright owner under the U.S. Copyright Act. These royalties may be payable to collective rights organizations, such as The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) or the Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), for example. In addition, the U.S. Copyright Act mandates that a video synchronization licensing fee be paid for each physical recording of these musical works such as on a DVD or video, for example. At the present time, there is no easy way to account for the number of recordings made or the amount of royalties due unless the vendor maintains paper records.
Further, if the system is used at a trade show or other marketing venue, there is no seamless way using the prior technique to add a product image or trademark into the video. In addition, there is no way to develop a database for collecting business contact information such as addresses, telephone numbers, or email addresses for future marketing opportunities unless it is maintained separately.
Eigenfunctions are algorithmic tools useful in a wide variety of applications. One such application is known as eigenface detection, also referred to as eigenface recognition, and has been described by Turk and Pentland in “Face recognition using eigenfaces,” Proceedings of the IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, June 1991, pp. 586-591; and in “Eigenfaces for recognition,” 3 Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 1991, pp. 71-86. Eigenface detection techniques are now being investigated for a variety of commercial and law enforcement applications including user verification, access control, crowd surveillance and enhanced human computer interaction.